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You may be surprised to learn that libraries are some of our best allies in the defence of access to information, privacy, and intellectual freedom. But this is nothing new, because these rights have always been fundamental to what libraries stand for.

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Semi-hip Librarians blog

As blogger, journalist and science fiction author Cory Doctorow wrote in an article about libraries as privacy champions, “There's an intellectually lazy view of libraries that holds that they've been made irrelevant by the Internet.” Anyone who has recently visited a library recently will know that this could not be further from the truth. Libraries are not only providers of Internet access, they are defenders of a secure and unfiltered net.

During the week of 21-28 February 2016, celebrated in Canada as Freedom to Read Week, we took the opportunity to discover all the ways that libraries are the outspoken – and underrated –defenders of your rights. Access to information, privacy, and intellectual freedom are all being defended in ways both big and small, by libraries and their staff.

1. Access

For many people, the library is the only place they can access the Internet for free. That access is as essential for a student in a remote rural community doing her homework as it is for a laid-off worker in a city looking for a job online. As e-readers become more common, libraries are the first port of call for free e Book downloads. Library staff also design and run free programmes to help users develop their digital and social-media literacy.

But access isn't necessarily unrestricted, and libraries face challenges when it comes to content filtering. In the United States, under the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) enacted by congress in 2000, libraries that receive funding assistance from the government in the form of discounts for Internet access must adhere to specific rules set out by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The library must have an Internet safety policy that includes technology protection measures, and the policy must block or filter access to pictures considered harmful to minors, such as pornography.

The intentions are good, but in some cases libraries are implementing overzealous filtering policies, concerned that if they don't filter out all potentially inappropriate sites to the fullest extent, they risk losing their funding.

There are other concerns with content filtering. The programmes are automated, and it is not always clear what is being blocked. As Alvin Schrader, a member of the Canadian Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Advisory Committee noted in the 2016 Freedom to Read Review, this has often led to constitutionally protected speech being blocked as well.

But libraries and library associations are fighting back. Organisations like the American Library Association (ALA) have worked to clarify CIPA requirements. As Deborah Caldwell-Stone, deputy director of the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom wrote, “The challenge is to comply with CIPA and the Supreme Court's decision while at the same time fulfilling the library's mission to provide content, not suppress it, and to increase access, not restrict it.”

We can't talk about Internet access without talking about digital security, an area libraries are struggling to keep up with. That's where librarian Alison Macrina of the Library Freedom Project stepped in. Her project, the recipient of a Knight Foundation News Challenge grant in 2015, aims to teach librarians and their communities about “surveillance threats, privacy rights and law, and privacy-protecting technology tools to help safeguard digital freedoms.” The project runs in-person workshops for librarians and provides them with teaching materials so they can run sessions for their patrons.

The challenge is to comply with CIPA and the Supreme Court’s decision while at the same time fulfilling the library’s mission to provide content, not suppress it, and to increase access, not restrict it.
-Deborah Caldwell-Stone, Deputy director of the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom

2. Privacy

While access to information is something you might expect libraries to care about, their concern with your right to privacy may be more surprising. In the U.S., the Campaign for Reader Privacy was launched in 2004 to “restore the safeguards for reader privacy that were eliminated by the USA Patriot Act”. In 2013 the group, which includes PEN American Center and the ALA, issued a statement calling on congress to pass legislation that would reinstate privacy protections for library lending records.

Section 215 of the Patriot Act is worrying for libraries because it allows the government to ask for library records via secret court orders, without giving any evidence that the person whose records are being requested has any links to terrorism. It can also stop the librarian from telling anyone about the request.

The Patriot Act covers not only materials borrowed from libraries, but also the browsing histories of people who access the Internet at the library. Eighty-five examples of libraries being asked for patron information related to the September 11th attacks were reported to the University of Illinois within the first month of the Patriot Act's passage.

To help their users, libraries have posted warnings to their patrons about possible government surveillance, while others have hosted cryptoparties to teach people how to use privacy software. In her work, Alison Macrina has encouraged libraries to be less complicit with government demands, noting that the government's power to collect personal information also depends on how much we give away.

Macrina told IFEX that, “From purging records to avoid government information requests, to fighting back against overbroad surveillance authorizations like the USA PATRIOT Act, to offering free computer privacy classes to members of the community, libraries are some of the fiercest defenders of our essential civil liberties and are often doing so without receiving much attention for this”.

An example of how one library is doing this is by hosting a Tor node. In the summer of 2015, Kilton Public Library in New Hampshire became the first library in the USA to host a Tor exit node, part of the network of servers that allow users to “improve their privacy and security on the Internet” by disguising where a connection is coming from, and allowing people to browse the Internet anonymously. Although there is nothing illegal about hosting a Tor exit node, authorities looking for the source of certain browsing may trace it to the operator of the node, in this case the library. Since libraries have a long history of supporting freedom of information, the fact that they would want to be part of the Tor project is hardly out of character.

When the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) pressured the Kilton library to shut down its Tor node, it did so briefly. The library asked for the public to comment on its decision to host the node, and then used the overwhelming support from its community and library users at large to justify its decision to restore it. One commenter wrote that they felt “libraries were uniquely qualified to operate” Tor nodes, while a member of the library board said that shutting it down could call into question “our mission as a provider of free access to information without fear of reprisal”.

In the week after the story about the Kilton library's run-in with the DHS went public, at least a dozen other libraries in the USA expressed interest in hosting nodes. Supporting this has become one of the latest tasks taken on by the Library Freedom Project.

Section 215 of the Patriot Act is worrying for libraries because it allows the government to ask for library records via secret court orders, without giving any evidence that the person whose records are being requested has any links to terrorism.

3. Intellectual freedom

One of the most visible ways that libraries are free expression heroes is in the defense of their materials.

Each year the Intellectual Freedom Advisory Committee of the Canadian Library Association (CLA) publishes the Survey of Challenges to Resources and Policies in Canadian Libraries. Libraries take each challenge seriously. They have to weigh the complainant's views against the right to free expression and the public's right to know. The CLA's summary of the 2014 survey noted that “Every challenge to expressive content in library materials is viewed within the framework of the established library mandate” and library policies on intellectual freedom and access.

Library staff also use challenges as teaching opportunities. As Alvin Schrader told IFEX, “When materials in a library's collection are challenged, staff explain and teach the importance of protecting everyone's right to have those materials available and to be able to think about the thoughts and views they contain”.

The CLA's 2014 survey revealed that only 3% of the materials challenged ended up being removed from the collection, while 43% were retained and 26% were either relocated or reclassified.

When asked in what way libraries are underrated as defenders of freedom of expression, Martyn Wade, of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) told IFEX, “Libraries are based on the principle of enabling everyone to benefit from and enjoy freedom of access to knowledge and freedom of expression in a safe and confidential physical and digital environment”.

In short, libraries aren't on the back shelves, gathering dust. They are front and centre in the defense of free expression and the right to access information without fear of reprisal. These rights are fundamental to what libraries have always stood for, and are daily being championed by these worthy institutions.

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Internet users from across the globe have come together to create a crowdsourced vision for free expression online. Over 300,000 people from 155 countries worldwide helped shape our roadmap for a Digital Future that includes us all.

Access to Information:

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The Report examines the progress countries have made since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals on implementing the commitment to make access to information available to all people in their countries.

After already cracking down on freedom of information in recent years, President Erdoğan has taken advantage of the abortive coup d’état and the state of emergency in effect since 20 July to silence many more of his media critics, not only Gülen movement media and journalists but also, to a lesser extent, Kurdish, secularist and left-wing media.

“After the initial optimism during the Euromaidan movement, many journalists have become disillusioned. They are faced with the triple challenge of the war in the Eastern part of the country, the economic crisis and the digitalization of mass media.”

In 2014 Cambodian journalists increasingly found themselves in the news, as reporters faced injury and even death for covering the news. 2014 proved the deadliest year for Cambodian journalists since the political turmoil of 1997, with two Cambodian journalists confirmed murdered in relation to their work and a third, foreign journalist found dead under suspicious circumstances.

While media freedom in Spain remains robust and certainly comparable to its European neighbours, at such a critical moment for the Spanish public there is a need to ensure maximum access to the free flow of information.

As the United Nations reflects on the future of global development and the post-2015 agenda, access to information must be recognised as critical to supporting governments to achieve development goals, and enabling citizens to make informed decisions to improve their own lives. IFLA, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, believes that libraries help guarantee that access.

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions 9 October 2014

The goal of this report is to provide African governments, civil society, researchers and other stakeholders with a tool that will guide and support the development and advancement of the right to information in Africa.

By their very nature, libraries are poised to become forces for social change and using this exhibit as an example, libraries themselves can show the life of their communities by putting their responses on display to support their involvement in social movements, engage others, and document for the future

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions 7 March 2014

For the fourth consecutive year, the IPA and PricewaterhouseCoopers have carried out a global survey on the application of VAT on printed books and e-books. It reveals that much progress remains for countries to adopt a non-discriminatory, consistent tax regime for printed and e-books.

Africa Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC) is pleased to join the Freedom of Information Advocates Network (FOIAnet) in launching a major global analysis of the development of the right to information (RTI) movement, broken down by region.

The government has enacted unnecessary restrictions on access to information about forest concessions and land claims. Authorities have harassed and intimidated local activists who have been bringing attention to forest sector abuses, and a number of environmentalists and activists have been arrested or prosecuted in recent months over plantation disputes.

Burma is at a crossroads. The period of transition since 2010 has opened up the space for freedom of expression to an extent unpredicted by even the most optimistic in the country. Yet this space is highly contingent on a number of volatile factors.

This publication is a component of the National Endowment for Democracy, (NED) funded project that has unearthed a dismal level of denial to disclose information in Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government in Liberia.

IFEX publishes original and member-produced free expression news and reports. Some member content has been edited by IFEX. We invite you to contact [email protected] to request permission to reproduce or republish in whole or in part content from this site.